Monday, January 23, 2012

I've been meaning to post this cassette for a long time. Last fall, I started the process of putting up the No More Expo tape until I saw it had been uploaded a few months earlier at Mutant Sounds.

Taking the title at it's word - "Sympathy Nervous '80 It's Second Coming", I presume this cassette was released or contains material recorded during or after the S/T LP on Vanity Records posted by Mutant Sounds.

The instrumentation here sounds closer to the S/T LP and their Polaroid 7" than No More Expo, which seems to have a thinner sound using updated drum machines & synths.

The label Minimal Wave recently released a Sympathy Nervous LP (Automaticism) that includes two tracks (Cabaret Voltaire & Extended Time) from this cassette. This LP is also a benefit for Yoshiumi Ninuma aka Sympathy Nervous who tragically lost everything from the Tsumani that hit Japan March 2011. His house, including equipment and recordings all washed away. I urge anyone who downloads this post to pick up Automaticism (Vinyl or download versions). I want to thank C.Patera and his blog Stalking Duppi for making me aware of this release and Yoshiumi's situation.

I won't go into detail about the music, other than to say it holds that same timeless quality other favorite electronic/synth albums of mine do like Conrad Schnitzler's Con, Monton, Kraftwerk and Dark Day, to name a few. Techno before techno and sounds that could just have easily been recorded 10-20 years later; dirty electro/minimal techno of Bunker/Clone/Sahko/Dum labels, Le Car, I-f, etc...

The tracklisting on Side A matches up to the music. The track listing on Side B indicates eight tracks, but I have them split into only six tracks. There are four tracks listed with Japanese titles that are part of tracks B2 through B4 (tks. 6-8 in the post). Track B6 (tk 9 in the post) is Extended Time. B7 & B8 are combined as Track 10 in the post. See included images for actual titles.

12 comments:

This seems to be identical with the "No More Expo" K7 - track lengths are exactly the same, except yours has no song titles and does have them. Track 01 of your file has the same music as the track "No More Expo" and so on... Maybe there has been a mistake??? I was really looking forward to this - it looks like a great find!

These appear to be the exact same songs as those in the "No More Expo" tape shared by Mutant Sounds. I have a feeling M-S is actually sharing a copy of "80 It's Second Coming!!" in a "No More Expo" case, because in the song "Plastic Love", Yosi is obviously saying "Plastic Love", while in Mutant Sound's post, this song is called "Music of the S.N. - Phase 1". I recommend ripping and sharing your copy of "No More Expo"!

C.Patera is correct. It appears Mutant Sounds has 'It's Second Coming' labeled as 'No More Expo'.

I never bothered to download the post at MS since I already had my own ripped copy, otherwise I would have mentioned something there.

I always wondered if I was the original source of MS's rip directly or indirectly via CDR trade.

Looking at one of the comments on the No More Expo post on MS, I see someone asking why there is a reference to 14 tracks. The original disc I made of 'It's Second Coming' also included a rip of the Anemic Session split 7". The two combine to 14 tracks.

I will try to post the actual 'No More Expo' soon. I never got around to splitting up the A side tracks once I saw MS has posted it (sort of).

Glad to hear you'll be uploading "No More Expo". Today I purchased the DR. NUMA "81-86" tape on Negative Emissions, so I'll post that as soon as I receive it. This will be a good year for Sympathy Nervous fans.

in your comments about this release, you mentioned the artist/release called "Monton" as an example of techno before techno, I have done a search for the name but nothing has come up, at first I thought it was something to do with the Spectral Display album from 1983 but probably not. I have had a search through your posts, but I could have easily missed it.

I really like your taste in music and it would be great to know which artist or release you are referencing.

Posting under my Kosmikino name, I asked ages ago who were Monton, and you kindly informed me you meant Monoton! Strangely, I have heard the name Konrad Becker over the years but inexplicably never came across the Monoton releases before.

There is very little music that lives up to Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster/Kluster/Harmonia, early Chris & Cosey, early Bernard Fevre/Black Devil and of course the Vanity Records label, for sheer originality and experimentation but I have got to add Monoton to that rare list.

Absolutely incredible music and I can't thank you enough for turning me onto Monoton.

I appreciate life and the need to do different things often means blogs get left behind but with Mutant Sounds no more, it would be great if AAA were to get resurrected one day as it is one of my all time favourite blogs and in these age of blog banality and mediocrity, is very much missed.